From PULSE film-makers Tom Harper (Cubs, Cherries) and Jack Thorne (The Mascot), and the team behind Slumdog Millionaire, comes a modern teen love story with an unexpected twist. The Scouting Book for Boys, proof that a big product can emerge from a small start, hits cinemas across the UK today.

In the lead up to his feature debut, London-born director Tom Harper has been honing his style and craft through a series of short films. Recognising the potential of his raw talent early on in Harper’s film-making career, Film London provided the director with digital shorts funding and support.

Off the back of the successful PULSE initiative, Harper produced Cubs in 2006 and award-winning Cherries the following year. Cubs – an unusual tale about urban fox hunting – received official recognition at the 2007 BAFTA Awards with a nomination for Best Short Film. It had such a strong original premise that TV and features regular Ashley Walters (Stormbreaker, Bullet Boy) signed up to the project.

Attracting established talent has become a marker in Harper’s work, with Thomas Turgoose (Somers Town, This Is England) and Holly Grainger (Demons, Casualty) taking the lead roles in The Scouting Book for Boys. They respectively star as David and Emily – best friend’s living in a coastal caravan park. Wiling away their days roaming around the local area, they are an integral part of each other’s lives. That is, until David finds out that Emily is being forced to move. The inseparable pair immediately takes action and engineer a strategy for Emily to run away, but things don’t quite go as planned…

The Scouting Book for Boys is a coming-of-age story, exploring the complex relationship of the teen protagonists, as well as the response of the surrounding community. Moviescope Magazine has given it a glowing five star review and Empire has awarded it a very respectable four stars. Jason Solomons from The Observer described it as “a twisted Romeo & Juliet for the Skins generation”; and considering the screenwriter for The Scouting Book for Boys is Skins scribe Jack Thorne, it is a particularly fitting description.

The film premiered at The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival, earning Thorne the award for Best British Newcomer. Thorne, whose script for short film The Mascot was supported through the PULSE scheme in 2004, says of his experience: “PULSE was a brilliant opportunity to get my short script on screen. It was a fascinating process in which I learnt so much."

Tom Harper also fondly recalls his short film-making days: “I remember when I first received the news that we had been awarded funding from Film London for my first short film Cubs. I was so thrilled (and relieved - it had been a long road of rejections leading to that point) I had to leave the office I was working in at the time and run around the block! That short film was the first step to becoming a professional director. I feel very lucky to have had the support of Film London and amazingly excited at the prospect of my first feature film being released.”

The Scouting Book for Boys is being released by Pathé at the Curzon Soho in London and across selected key cities on 19 March, before undertaking a screening tour of the UK.

Find out more about The Scouting Book for Boys, access news and reviews as well as cinema listings, on the official film website: www.thescoutingbookforboys.co.uk.